Jaleswar: In a bone chilling incident, a woman was held captive in an isolated room and brutally raped for 79 days by a ‘tantrik’ with the help of her in-laws. The heinous incident which took place in Raibanai area under Jaleswar block in Balasore district came to light after the woman lodged a complaint Friday.
As per the complaint, the victim got married to Nilamani Jena four years back. Within six months of marriage, Nilamani who ran a shop, started an illicit relationship with another woman. Meanwhile the victim’s mother-in-law Gita Rani, father-in-law Purna Chandra and brother-in-law Suryamani began torturing her for more dowry.
Promising to resolve the marital dispute with Nilamani, one day Gita took the victim to a muslim ‘tantrik’ SK Shoraff. Gita then forced the victim to establish a physical relationship with him in front of her 2.5 year old son to evade evil happenings in the family.
Gita also told the victim that her husband Nilamani might die and evil things will happen to the family if she doesn’t sleep with the ‘tantrik’.
Later, after a few weeks, Gita again took the victim to the sorcerer who gave her sedative and she fell unconscious. When the woman regained consciousness, she found herself along with her son in a locked room at Bainchadiha village under Morada police limits. Since then the ‘tantrik’ continued to sexually assault the victim for 79 days in front of her son.
Last week, the sorcerer left his mobile phone by mistake while leaving the room. Taking advantage of the situation, the woman called up her parents who had been searching for her and had lodged a missing persons’ complaint after she went missing.
On being informed, Morada police rushed to the spot and rescued the victim and her child. But, the sorcerer managed to gave a slip to the police. The victim has sustained injuries because of the sorcerer’s torture. The accused has also assaulted her son, causing a fracture in his hand.
A case has been registered under Sec 498-A, 294, 323, 342, 417, 109, 376(2)(n), 506 and 34 of IPC, and Sec 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act 1961 and Sec 5 and Sec 6 of the Odisha Prevention of Witch-hunting Act 2013 against Nilamani Jena, mother-in-law, father-in-law, brother-in-law and the tantrik, police said.
